DOWAGIAC — The faculty at Southwestern Michigan College will soon become members of the state educators’ union, according to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

On Friday, the state agency tabulated the results from the mail-in ballots sent to the community college’s 58 full-time faculty members earlier this month, which asked them whether or not they wished to become members of the Michigan Education Association, a statewide union for educators and others working in public education. SMC faculty voted 31 to 23 in favor of unionizing, according to a copy of the ballot tabulation form sent to Leader Publications.

As a result of the vote, the college instructors will join the 140,000 current members of the MEA, the largest public employee union in the state.

The decision marks the first time since the 1980s that SMC faculty members have been unionized. Prior to the vote, no member of the college’s faculty, staff or administration were part of a union.

This month’s vote followed a request from the MEA to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission — a division of LARA — in November, in which the union requested to represent the 58 full-time SMC faculty members. In the subsequent weeks, enough faculty members responded in favor of the proposal that MERC began mailing out ballots for a formal vote on Jan. 9.

Leader Publications will publish more information about this story as it becomes available.